Struggling Kodak restructures to stay in the picture

And then there were two. Struggling Kodak announces that it is transforming its business structure from three segments to two that will focus on commercial interests and consumer-related products.

By Msnbc.com staff and wire

Kodak is restructuring to simplify its business and cut costs as it struggles to transform itself in the face of its shrinking film business.

The 131-year-old icon of American industry said Tuesday that it is creating "a new and simpler business structure designed to increase productivity, reduce cost and accelerate its transformation into a digital company that delivers sustainable profitability and creates value for its stakeholders."

Under the new structure, Eastman Kodak Co. will be reducing its business segments from three to two that will focus on its commercial business and its consumer-related business. Both segments will report to a newly created Chief Operating Office. That office will be jointly led by Philip Faraci, Kodak’s president and chief operating officer, and by Laura Quatela, who was recently named, alongside Faraci, as president and chief operating officer of Kodak. Both will report to Kodak's Chief Executive Officer Antonio M. Perez.

Faraci will focus on the commercial business and the company’s sales and regional operations, and Quatela will focus on the consumer business and certain corporate functions, Kodak said in a statement.

"As we complete Kodak’s transformation to a digital company, our future markets will be very different from our past, and we need to organize ourselves in keeping with that evolution,” Perez said.

The changes took effect on Jan. 1. No job cuts were announced as part of the restructuring and no business segments are disappearing. Previously, Kodak's business segments were divided into its traditional film and photo paper products, consumer digital imaging and graphic communications, which included printing equipment.

Kodak has been bleeding cash as it struggles to move away from a business model dependent on film to one that's based on commercial and consumer printers. Last week, Kodak said it may be kicked off the New York Stock Exchange if it cannot boost its share price over the next six months.

Kodak has been reported to be preparing for a bankruptcy reorganization filing if it can't sell the digital-imaging patents, which could fetch as much as $3 billion according to analysts. No buyers have emerged since the company started shopping the patents around in July.

In November, it reported its ninth quarterly loss in three years and said its cash reserves had fallen 10 percent in three months.